The company is Silicon Graphics Incorporated, or SGI, which once was famous for its high-powered graphics and 3-D workstations but has fallen on hard times of late. SGI now focuses on supercomputers, but there's a tiny coterie of fans dedicated to keeping the company's aging but high-powered workstations alive. On a similar note, the every-three-months maintaince release of Irix is 3 months late.

Throw the whole thing in a nice pizza box, along the lines of either an Indy or even a O2 case, and throw a price tag of around $1200 on it, oh, and for christ sake, don't assemble it in some expensive location in Europe; outsource the damn production to the some company that does the assembling of IBMs Think Centre PC's.

Talk to the old SGI software providers, sit down, and write these companies a cheque; PAY these companies to get software on SGI machines.

As for IRIX, bundle it with the desktops, free of charge with a standard 5 years free software support (updates and Upgrades), then after 5 years, charge a support fee.

If they did all the above, I would be *more* than happy to purchase an SGI machine; the problem is, they think that the high end will be their saviour; it won't. What will save them is a strong ISV and IHV network, which can only be created by producing volume systems. SUN got that message, and they've dropped their system prices, and thus, their volume has increase. They're heading back into profitability.

SGI need to do the same thing if they wish to stay in for the long haul.